Misery Loves Its Company
by tinyhuman02
Summary: So April's dating Matt, the adorable paramedic. No big deal, right? Jackson tries to pretend he's not bothered by it, but not everybody's fooled. Plus, another short cookie lecture by Cristina Yang. Post 9x12, one-shot.


**Hey, folks! Thought I'd take a quick break from my other Japril story and write a one-shot based on what's happening in the show right now. So, I'm hoping we see a bit of a jealous side from Jackson when he finds out about Matt (I'm assuming he'll know eventually). Anyway, I want to see Alex and/or Cristina tease him about it, but I have no idea if they'll do it on the show, so here's my short interpretation of it. And I'm ignoring the whole part about the ER in danger of being shut down.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Grey's or its characters, if I did I would've dealt with some of the BS going on a lot differently :p**

* * *

Over the course of two weeks, he had heard rumblings from his coworkers. Jackson Avery wanted to pretend he didn't care that April Kepner was dating – or having friendly lunches and coffee outings, which is what he wanted to call it – with this paramedic guy. Matthew Taylor was his name. He didn't know him well. A few encounters in the ER in the past, but nothing more than the typical professional exchanges between them. His mind was always on the patient, not the paramedic's personal life.

He first heard about Matt from Stephanie Edwards. The intern had just finished her shift in the ER with April and she asked him to meet him at Joe's for a drink or two. He thought it would be drinks and screw later, but when he arrived at the bar she was in a more bubbly mood than usual. She typically wasn't the ever so bubbly person. Cristina Yang had nicknamed her Grumpy for a reason. He decided to roll with it, possibly increasing his chances of taking her home with him that night.

And the conversation started on a very sour topic – April and how she taught Stephanie how to handle the ER like a badass. Jackson quietly sat in his seat as he sipped his beer, while his sex buddy listed everything she excelled in during her shift with the trauma surgeon.

Memorized all of the beds.

Cleared her waiting room.

Witnessed the cute paramedic awkwardly ask out April for coffee.

The last bit of information caught his attention. He slowly turned his head towards Stephanie, who continued her story about how adorable the pair was. She barely knew April and she already assumed this Matt Taylor character was perfect for her? Does she know who she's talking to?

Then again, it's not like Jackson told her about everything that had happened between him and his best friend – more like _ex-best friend_ at the moment. Why would he? He was sleeping with his intern, who may or may not have known that he did indeed sleep with April too. She was in the OR with them when they argued over April's revirginizing quest. Meredith figured it out and let it be known. Of course, Stephanie had to have known a smidge of their history. However, she never did speak of it. But it _was_ a mood deflator, which was all the more reason why he never talked about it either. As if she would want to hear stories of how much sex he had with April on a daily basis before he started the same routine with her.

He tried his best to ignore the supposed new man in April's life by sweeping Stephanie away with a kiss that shut her up for the rest of the night. For a couple of hours, he was able to forget about April Kepner's existence.

But the following morning, the first person to pop into his head was April. Who was he kidding? She was allowed to move on. He did… sort of. He was trying to be happy about it. They weren't really friends, so confronting her about Matt would make him come off as a jealous douche bag. Maybe he _was_ jealous, but not a douche bag. He lay in bed recalling their last encounter when he told her about Stephanie. She was hurt. He saw it all over her face.

And she admitted she wanted to kiss him. He used all of his will power to hold himself back, but now he couldn't understand why he did. He wanted to kiss her too, so why couldn't he do it?

Oh, yeah. Stephanie. He wasn't sure what to call their relationship, but he didn't want to become that sleazy guy who sleeps around with multiple women. Like Alex Karev. But dammit, he instantly felt like he was lower than the peds surgeon. He promised himself he wouldn't be that gross guy and here he was, sleeping with an intern after mentally telling himself he would never sleep with interns.

He constantly tried to reassure himself that he was a guy who loved sex. And he didn't mind getting laid on a daily basis. But then his focus would snap out of it and he was the gross guy again. April probably thought he was gross too. She just wouldn't tell him to his face.

* * *

For a week, Jackson lurked around the ER like a creeper. He wanted to see how this paramedic convinced April to have coffee with him. Fortunately, a burn victim arrived at the pit one day, which meant he would be occupied with work while he quietly observed their interactions.

Based on his observations, Matt was around her a lot. If he wasn't out in the field tending to a patient, he was in the ER with April. In his opinion, Matt was one tall dork. He had the corniest jokes that made her laugh. He had a goofy smile. But when he thought about it Stephanie was right. They kind of were perfect for each other. Both dorks. They could be happy dorks together.

However, he wanted that redheaded dork. She was his dork first. And literally, _he_ was her first.

Jackson knew Matt was a good person, but he had a sick hatred for him. He hated the way he made April smile at everything he said to her, the way she would gently rub his bicep when she laughed at his stupid jokes and most of all, the way she appeared head over heels crazy about him when he kissed her goodbye. The one thing he certainly hoped they weren't doing was…

…no. She couldn't be having sex with him. It had only been a week. She wasn't that type of woman, unless…

_Screw that_, he thought to himself. There was no way April would be sleeping with a man she hardly knows that fast. They were friends for more than six years before she felt compelled to give away her virginity to him, so he refused to believe that her new relationship went beyond pecks on the lips.

As if the moment couldn't get worse for him, Stephanie was on April's service that day. He watched them gush about Matt before she sent the intern over to his bed where he was working on a second degree burn on his patient's leg.

"I seriously can't stop smiling about how cute Kepner is," she beamed, sitting beside the plastic surgeon. "I can't believe it took Matt more than a year to finally find the courage to speak to her. First, he claimed he had only been watching her for two days, but he admitted it's been a year! Did you know he was pining for her that long?"

"No," he muttered, focusing his eyes on the injury in front of him. "I can't say I did. It's not like I ever bond with the paramedics. They pretty much come and go, so I don't make friends with them."

"And he's such a sweetheart, according to Kepner," she continued, unaware of the scowl on Jackson's face. "He brought her flowers yesterday just because he wanted to. And he was so nervous about it too. Like, he was scared she would reject them or something. I don't know. She seems like the type of person who enjoys flowers."

Jackson inhaled sharply. Freaking Matt Taylor was doing the little things he never did for April, but their relationship seemed too dysfunctional to figure out if he was supposed to buy her flowers. It was mostly sex – with feelings. They never went out on a date or held hands publicly for everyone to see. Matt and April probably already had three times the number of dates in the whole week they had been "seeing" each other.

Thinking about those two and listening to Stephanie ramble about them made his blood boil. He didn't want to hear anything about them anymore. He thought he might go crazy in the ER if she kept talking.

"Edwards, focus on the patient, not Kepner's personal life," he sternly interrupted her. She quickly shut her mouth, staring at him with a raised eyebrow. He was right, though. They were working and gossiping in front of a patient who was in need of medical attention felt unprofessional. He could have been slightly less harsh with his demand, but he simply wanted her to shut up about April's new man. "Okay, I'm going to need some more gauze to cover this leg. Could you get me some more from the supply closet, please?"

Stephanie quietly obeyed his orders and left him alone with the patient, who had a smirk on his face.

"You're jealous. You have jealousy written all over your preppy boy face," he bluntly said, adding a chuckle.

"Excuse me?" Jackson retorted as he glared at his patient. "Mr. Braxton, you have no idea what you're talking about."

"You've been staring at that Kepner chick since I got here," he pointed out, glancing over at April, who was sitting behind a computer. "What's so special about her? I mean, don't get me wrong. She's a nice looking woman, but why so jealous of that paramedic?"

"Uhh, no. I am not talking about my personal life with you," he dismissively answered. "You barely know me and I'm not going to listen to my patient badger me about a friend you don't know anything about either."

The patient laughed to himself and smirked at the envious doctor again. "Whatever you say, Dr. Avery. But you're definitely jealous," he teased, receiving another glare from him.

Jackson wanted nothing more than to punch his patient. It bothered him that even a freaking patient could read what he was thinking. He _was_ jealous, but he didn't want people to know that. Gossip spread like a virus in the hospital and he dreaded April finding out his true feelings and having an uncomfortable encounter with her. Putting on a fake smile was what he needed to do.

* * *

Another week passed and still, he was forced to hear about Matt's adorable gestures for April from Stephanie. And it wasn't just his intern chatting about it now. Their coworkers knew of her blooming relationship with the paramedic, so he couldn't avoid the topic as much.

Jackson ate his lunch with Alex and Cristina in the attendings lounge, although he wasn't doing much eating. He poked at his salad, while his two colleagues thought it was a great idea to bring up the romance between the trauma surgeon and the paramedic. Why they even cared about them, he had no idea. They barely cared about April alone, so he suspected they were talking about Matt to get on his nerves.

"They're totally screwing," Alex suggested as he munched on a handful of potato chips in his mouth. "Have you seen Kepner lately? She's always in this creepy, cheerful mood. I've made fun of her at least twice a day this week and it hasn't dampered her mood. She must be having some hot sex with this guy."

"Please, she barely knows him. April will want to know everything about him before she even lets him peek at her cleavage," Jackson scoffed.

Cristina smirked at him. "So uhh, how many siblings does Grumpy have?" She proudly smiled to herself when he remained silent. Jackson's on-call room romps with Stephanie wasn't exactly unknown to the other doctors anymore either. "See? Works both ways. She doesn't have to know every detail about Matt to have sex with him."

Jackson rolled his eyes. "Have you guys completely forgot who April is? She was a virgin for 30 years. She had guilt trips about sleeping with _me_ because she thought Jesus hated her for it," he replied defensively. "And she's not going to sleep with a guy she just realized existed two weeks ago. That's not her."

"C'mon, Avery. Sex is like Pringles. Once you pop, you can't stop," Alex quipped, sharing a laugh with Cristina. "That rule applies to April too. You two were boinking whenever you had the opportunity. You turned her into a sex freak, who's now getting her freak on with a paramedic."

"Plus, have you seen Matt's hands? He's got huge freakin' hands!" Cristina implied, slyly grinning at the two men. "And you know what that means."

"Oh, for crying out loud, that doesn't mean anything," Jackson argued, though he quickly gazed down at his hands for a brief comparison. He shook his head before his eyes returned to his coworkers. "They're not having sex. I guarantee you."

Cristina held up her hand. "_You_ don't want to believe she's having sex with him because you've been loving the fact that she's only had sex with you," she countered. "And you're scared she might actually be having better sex with Matt."

"You're way off base, Yang. That's not it at all. I'm telling you, she's not going to jump into bed with any guy after _two weeks_. Besides, he could be a serial killer for all we know. He looks too nice to be completely innocent."

"I used to think the same thing when I met you," the cardio fellow joked. "Actually, I still do."

"Shut up," he murmured, slouching in his seat. "Neither of you know April as well as I do, so everything coming out of your mouths is bullshit."

Cristina groaned. "You really need to let her move on, Avery. Do I need to give you a cookie lesson too?"

"Huh?"

Fortunately for her, there was a plate of assorted cookies sitting in the middle of the table. Picking up a chocolate chip cookie, she held it up in front of Jackson. "This is you. You're this delectable, tasty chocolate chip cookie. People crave chocolate chip cookies because they're delicious, but they're also fattening and toxic."

Jackson raised his eyebrow at her, unimpressed by her analogy. "Are you calling me toxic?"

She then picked up a vanilla wafer, holding it up with her other hand. "And here is a vanilla wafer. It's lighter, healthier. Sweet outer layer as well as inner. A little bit on the bland side, but in a way it's adorable and it's a much safer choice to eat than the chocolate chip cookie," she continued. "Now, the chocolate chip is by far more attractive than the vanilla wafer. But when I look at the wafer I see-"

"Matt," Alex answered with a chuckle. "She's basically saying you suck and Matt doesn't."

"If that's how she feels, then why couldn't she have just said that instead of comparing me to a cookie?" Jackson asked irritably. He grabbed the vanilla wafer and crushed it with his hand. "Newsflash – wafers are just wannabe cookies and they crumble more easily than a chocolate chip cookie."

"Dude, you're so freaking jealous," Alex added. "If you want Kepner that bad, then why the hell are you still messing around with Edwards?"

Before he could respond, April entered the lounge smiling at her coworkers as she walked towards the refrigerator. "Hey, guys," she greeted them. "What's up?"

Jackson tried to remove the scowl from his face. "Nothing. Want to eat with us?"

"Oh, I can't. I'm just getting my lunch, then I'm meeting Matt downstairs. We're eating in his ambulance today," she cheerfully answered, quickly shrugging her shoulders and grinning. "Who knew those seats were so comfortable?"

"Yeah, I heard they're quite bouncy too," Alex replied, smirking at Jackson once more. Cristina snorted, while the pretty boy immediately glared back at him.

"What was that?" April asked, looking back at the threesome as she retrieved her lunch.

"Nothing," he answered, holding back his laugh. "Uhh, enjoy your date or whatever."

The trauma surgeon giggled as she closed the refrigerator door. "It's not a date. Just lunch," she insisted, making her way towards the exit.

"Hey, uhh…" Jackson watched April stop in her tracks to look at him. "Do you want to get a drink at Joe's later? My shift ends at seven, so… if you're not busy by then, maybe we could hang out?"

It had been a long time since they hung out together as friends. He missed her more than he thought. And he hated how much their relationship had changed since he decided to end things with her. She and Matt weren't serious as far as he could tell, so maybe there was still a chance he could change her mind about him.

April slightly grimaced. "I'm sorry, Jackson. I already have plans, but can we reschedule?"

Plans. Probably with Matt. Dammit. "Sure," he softly replied, forcing himself to smile. "We can do that. No problem."

"Okay, I'll see you around then," she answered, not noticing how defeated Jackson sounded with his response. "Later, you guys."

Jackson watched her leave the attendings lounge just as happy as she came in. From a friend's point of view, he always wanted her to be happy and she felt the same way. But that was before they slept together and everything became complicated.

She was happy… with someone else.

And it was killing him inside.

* * *

**Thoughts? :)**


End file.
